Obama re-elected
Article added on November 7, 2012 at 05:19 Italian time

Four years ago, the United States voters elected
a president with no executive experience and not only no bipartisan record, but no
(political) record at all. Four years later, Barack Obama has of course
gained executive experience, but he still has no bipartisan record.
Nevertheless, the United States voters have decided on November 6 to keep
Barack Obama in the White House.

Already at 3am Italian time, CNN projected an Obama win in Michigan, the
home of the auto-industry, which got bailed o ut by the president. Later,
Pennsylvania was lost for Romney not much later. An Iowa win for Obama
followed. When Ohio went to Obama at 5:19am, the race was over.

The African-American voter-turnout was huge and almost entirely for Obama,
despite the fact that the unemployment rate among African Americans is
14.3%, much higher than the national average of 7.8%.

In the Senate, a third of all seats - 33 seats - were up for grabs. The
Democrats managed to retain their majority. The Republicans would have
needed only to win 4 additional seats. The were unable to do so despite the
miserable economy.

Elections were held for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
Already at 3:07 Italian time, CNN predicted the Republicans to win a
majority in the House again. Therefore, a bipartisan effort to resolve the
U.S. debt and deficit crisis will be needed.

In addition, 13 gubernatorial elections in 11 states and 2 territories
took place.

The irony of course is that Mitt Romney, as former governor
of the Democrat state of Massachusetts, has a notable bipartisan
record. Romneycare was adopted with bipartisan support, whereas
Obamacare did not get a single Republican vote.

Furthermore, Romneycare was written down on 60 pages, whereas Obamacare
fills over 1000 pages. In addition, Mitt Romney was not happy by far with
everything that ended up in Romneycare. The governor vetoed eight provisions
of the Massachusetts healthcare bill. All his vetoes were overridden by the
Democrat-dominated Massachusetts legislature. For instance, Mitt Romney had
wanted an escape from the individual mandate. In short, a nationwide
Romneycare would have looked different from Obamacare.

In the early phase of the 2012 presidential campaign, the Democrats managed
to paint Mitt Romney as a right-wing nut, whereas in reality, he is a
moderate politician. This is a kind of equivalent to the 2008 campaign in
which the Republicans painted Barack Obama as a communist or
socialist, whereas in reality he is a social democrat. This strategy
backfired in the end with many independent voters realizing that Barack
Obama stands on the political left, without being an extremist. The same
happened in the
first 2012 presidential debate between Romney and
Obama. Romney turned out to be reasonable.

Despite
Obama's weak economic numbers such as 12.3 million Americans
looking for a job, 11.5 million Americans underemployed and 47 million
Americans on food stamps, President Obama was re-elected. The country
remains divided.

In the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives pretty much
everything stays the same. Let's hope Democrats and Republicans come to
their senses and resolve the financial, debt and budget crisis in a
bipartisan effort.